Every month on our pho­tog­ra­phy forum mem­bers nom­i­nate images that they like. Then at the end of the month I choose an excel­lent image and talk about why it rocks. The photo I choose is not nec­es­sar­ily the best one of the month. I’ve come to real­ize it’s not really log­i­cal to pit images from totally dif­fer­ent gen­res against each other. That’s why there are cat­e­gories in photo con­tests. I just choose a photo that has extremely strong ele­ments that we can learn from.

Junk Yard Cat by Barefoot

This month’s choice is Junk Yard Cat by Barefoot

I chose this image for sev­eral reasons:

Mood — Light­ing — This image has a great mood due to the won­der­ful light­ing. The light­ing is on the low key side and it’s totally work­ing for me here. Even though the light­ing is low-keyish there’s still quite a bit of deli­cious shadow detail.

Good sug­ges­tion of a story — This is also related to the mood but it looks to me like this car is in an old garage or barn. The car is also way old with loads of rust but it still serves a pur­pose, it’s not dead yet. It serves as a poten­tial favourite rest­ing spot for the cat.

Sub­tlety — Mys­tery — Sur­prise — I love the fact that my eye did NOT go straight to the cat in this shot and this is due to the fact that the bright cir­cu­lar thing on top of the head­light at right is the first thing we look at. I love that. Had the cat been brighter, the shot would have been more about the cat and our eye would have gone straight for the cat. This way, we get a bet­ter sur­prise when we notice the cat.

Com­po­si­tion — I dig the repeat­ing cir­cles and lines in this image as well as the point of view from which the image was taken.

For all these rea­sons, this is my choice for image of the month. Since we all have opin­ions, some mem­bers may dis­agree with my choice. That’s cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to fur­ther cri­tique the image. The pur­pose here is to sug­gest strong ele­ments in the photo that we may learn from.

Con­grats again Bare­foot for see­ing and cap­tur­ing this won­der­ful scene!

Every month on our pho­tog­ra­phy forum mem­bers nom­i­nate images that they like. Then at the end of the month I choose an excel­lent image and talk about why it rocks. The photo I choose is not nec­es­sar­ily the best one of the month. I’ve come to real­ize it’s not really log­i­cal to pit images from totally dif­fer­ent gen­res against each other. That’s why there are cat­e­gories in photo con­tests. I just choose a photo that has extremely strong ele­ments that we can learn from.

A snowy morn­ing by Bambi

This month’s choice is‚A snowy morn­ing by Bambi

I chose this image for sev­eral reasons:

Mood — This image has a won­der­ful mood and this mood is cre­ated by the falling snow, the snow cov­ered branches in the fore­ground against the darker toned trees in the midground and of course the fig­ure in the back­ground. A shal­lower depth of field with the sharpest ele­ments in the fore­ground might not have been the obvi­ous choice for many pho­tog­ra­phers, but it is rock­ing this image big-time! The shut­ter speed catch­ing the sus­pended snow is also help­ing the mood. The Black and white con­ver­sion is very well done, and it suits and enhances the other ele­ments con­tribut­ing to the over­all mood.

Com­po­si­tion — Very well done here! There are ‘lay­ers’ of inter­est­ing things for our eyes to look at start­ing from the fore­ground and con­tin­u­ing to the back­ground where the focal point (the per­son) is. Our eye is well guided through this win­tery ‘tunnel’.

Exposure/shutter speed — Both are well han­dled here. The shut­ter speed ‘freezes‚ ’ the falling snow here. A good expo­sure keeps the whites in check and offers up won­der­ful tonal­ity with a good range of tones. If I have 1 teeny nig­gle I might burn in the light­est branches at top right by maybe 5%.

For all these rea­sons, this is my choice for image of the month. Since we all have opin­ions, some mem­bers may dis­agree with my choice. That’s cool but THIS post is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to fur­ther cri­tique the image. The pur­pose here is to sug­gest strong ele­ments in the photo that we may learn from.

Con­grats again Bambi for cap­tur­ing this gor­geous scene!

Every month on our pho­tog­ra­phy forum mem­bers nom­i­nate images that they like. Then at the end of the month I choose an excel­lent image and talk about why it rocks. The photo I choose is not nec­es­sar­ily the best one of the month. I’ve come to real­ize it’s not really log­i­cal to pit images from totally dif­fer­ent gen­res against each other. That’s why there are cat­e­gories in photo con­tests. I just choose a photo that has extremely strong ele­ments that we can learn from.

Golden Glit­ter by Donna

This month’s choice is Golden Glit­ter by Donna

I chose this image for sev­eral reasons:

Com­po­si­tion — I just love the com­po­si­tion here, it’s so pleas­ing to the eye. The rule of thirds is work­ing well for me here with approx­i­mately 1/3 fore­ground, 1/3 midground and 1/3 back­ground when you look hor­i­zon­tally. When you look ver­ti­cally it’s a clas­sic 1/3rd left and 2/3rds to the right. Some peo­ple scoff at the rule of thirds.…scoff away…if the horse were cen­tered here, the image would not be as visu­ally inter­est­ing. The horse was likely delib­er­ately cap­tured in an excel­lent spot which is the bright­est spot in the image. Our eye goes right to the horse. The water line in the midground is another inter­est­ing element.

Colour palette/tonal qual­ity — These are WOW colours for me even though they are quite con­trasty in parts of the image. The colour palette is golden warm, well bal­anced, and the tones are harmonious.

Lighting/exposure — This is tricky light­ing which means tricky expo­sure and it is very well han­dled. The backlighting/sidelighting on the horse has just enough detail on its side to make it inter­est­ing and pro­vide a bit of reflec­tion in the water. The head is par­tially sil­hou­et­ted which adds drama and grabs our eye as pre­vi­ously mentioned.

For all these rea­sons, this is my choice for image of the month. Since we all have opin­ions, some mem­bers may dis­agree with my choice. That’s cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to fur­ther cri­tique the image. The pur­pose here is to sug­gest strong ele­ments in the photo that we may learn from.

Con­grats again Donna for cap­tur­ing this gor­geous scene!

Every month on our pho­tog­ra­phy forum mem­bers nom­i­nate images that they like. Then at the end of the month I choose an excel­lent image and talk about why it rocks. The photo I choose is not nec­es­sar­ily the best one of the month. I’ve come to real­ize it’s not really log­i­cal to pit images from totally dif­fer­ent gen­res against each other. That’s why there are cat­e­gories in photo con­tests. I just choose a photo that has extremely strong ele­ments that we can learn from.

Golden Glit­ter by Donna

This month’s choice is‚Golden Glit­ter by Donna

I chose this image for sev­eral reasons:

Com­po­si­tion — I just love the com­po­si­tion here, it’s so pleas­ing to the eye. The rule of thirds is work­ing well for me here with approx­i­mately 1/3 fore­ground, 1/3 midground and 1/3 back­ground when you look hor­i­zon­tally. When you look ver­ti­cally it’s a clas­sic 1/3rd left and 2/3rds to the right. Some peo­ple scoff at the rule of thirds.…scoff away…if the horse were cen­tered here, the image would not be as visu­ally inter­est­ing. The horse was likely delib­er­ately cap­tured in an excel­lent spot which is the bright­est spot in the image. Our eye goes right to the horse. The water line in the midground is another inter­est­ing element.

Colour palette/tonal qual­ity — These are WOW colours for me even though they are quite con­trasty in parts of the image. The colour palette is golden warm, well bal­anced, and the tones are harmonious.

Lighting/exposure — This is tricky light­ing which means tricky expo­sure and it is very well han­dled. The backlighting/sidelighting on the horse has just enough detail on its side to make it inter­est­ing and pro­vide a bit of reflec­tion in the water. The head is par­tially sil­hou­et­ted which adds drama and grabs our eye as pre­vi­ously mentioned.

For all these rea­sons, this is my choice for image of the month. Since we all have opin­ions, some mem­bers may dis­agree with my choice. That’s cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to fur­ther cri­tique the image. The pur­pose here is to sug­gest strong ele­ments in the photo that we may learn from.

Con­grats again Donna for cap­tur­ing this gor­geous scene!

Every month on our¯¿½pho­tog­ra­phy forum mem­bers nom­i­nate images that they like. Then at the end of the month I choose an excel­lent image and talk about why it rocks. The photo I choose is not nec­es­sar­ily the best one of the month. I¯¿½ve come to real­ize it¯¿½s not really log­i­cal to pit images from totally dif­fer­ent gen­res against each other. That¯¿½s why there are cat­e­gories in photo con­tests. I just choose a photo that has extremely strong ele­ments that we can learn from.

Swirls by Edg

I chose this image for sev­eral reasons:

I love the sharp­ness here and over­all depth of field choice here. Lovely sharp fore­ground flower (the focal point) at left.

The tonal qual­ity of the flow­ers is very unique and well done. It’s a bit darker than I’m used to see­ing, but it adds to the unique tonal qual­ity and mood of the pho­to­graph. Gor­geous palette of pinks and reds. Great high­lights in the flower at left and nice sub­tle high­lights on the right flower as well. I like that the left flower is slightly brighter than the right.

My eye is skill­fully guided around the image and rests on the focal point. This is due to some fine focal point selec­tion and lens selec­tion dur­ing expo­sure and some lovely post pro­cess­ing. The post pro­cess­ing (espe­cially the dark­en­ing of the back­ground) refines the over­all com­po­si­tion here and it totally works.

If I have one small nig­gle, I’d clone out/burn the bright­ish white edge of the petal on the main left flower at lower left, but that’s it.

For all these rea­sons, this is my choice for image of the month. Since we all have opin­ions, some mem­bers may dis­agree with my choice. That’s cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to fur­ther cri­tique the image. The pur­pose here is to sug­gest strong ele­ments in the photo that we may learn from.

Con­grats again edG for cre­at­ing this gor­geous image!

I¯¿½d also like to include these 3 images as hon­ourable men­tions as they also came close to being picked.

Yum­m­mmm — I Love Pollen by Matt K.

Wad­ing Pool by Jas Photo

Descend­ing by Barefoot

Every month on our¯¿½ pho­tog­ra­phy forum mem­bers nom­i­nate images that they like. Then at the end of the month I choose an excel­lent image and talk about why it rocks. The photo I choose is not nec­es­sar­ily the best one of the month. I¯¿½ve come to real­ize it¯¿½s not really log­i­cal to pit images from totally dif­fer­ent gen­res against each other. That¯¿½s why there are cat­e­gories in photo con­tests. I just choose a photo that has extremely strong ele­ments that we can learn from.

A Black & White Foray by Mad Aussie

I chose this image for sev­eral reasons:

First off, it’s a WOW image. A lot of the ‘wow’ comes from the incred­i­ble sky and the way it’s processed. It’s dark­ish, some­what omi­nous and sets an incred­i­ble mood. Had the sky been bor­ing, this shot would not be the same, so good on Mad Aussie for notic­ing the amaz­ing sky.

The tones in this image are very nicely ren­dered and the higher con­trast used here works extremely well to my eye. It’s very dra­matic and makes me think of the Greek Myth involv­ing Atlas. If I have one teeny nig­gle I’d have toned down the brighter rock just under the main boulder.

Lead­ing lines — The rocks at lower left lead upward toward the big rock at cen­ter right which is the focal point of this image. This is NO acci­dent and is the result of care­ful in-camera com­po­si­tion. In terms of over­all com­po­si­tion — just friggen fab. Inter­est­ing fore­ground (jagged rocks) midground (boul­der which is the focal point) and back­ground (awe­some sky) ele­ments. The split between rocks and sky is also inter­est­ing and well thought out with 2/3rds sky and about 1/3rd rocks. Although we often have the dis­cus­sion about the rule of thirds being a mere guideline…that rule is rock­ing this image

For all these rea­sons, this is my choice for image of the month. Since we all have opin­ions, some mem­bers may dis­agree with my choice. That’s cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to fur­ther cri­tique the image. The pur­pose here is to sug­gest strong ele­ments in the photo that we may learn from.

Con­grats again Mad Aussie for cre­at­ing this strik­ing image!

I¯¿½d also like to include these 2 images as hon­ourable men­tions as they also came close to being picked.

Moun­tain Stream by Bambi

Drift­wood and clouds by Michaelaw

Every month on our¯¿½ pho­tog­ra­phy forum mem­bers nom­i­nate images that they like. Then at the end of the month I choose an excel­lent image and talk about why it rocks. The photo I choose is not nec­es­sar­ily the best one of the month. I¯¿½ve come to real­ize it¯¿½s not really log­i­cal to pit images from totally dif­fer­ent gen­res against each other. That¯¿½s why there are cat­e­gories in photo con­tests. I just choose a photo that has extremely strong ele­ments that we can learn from.

I chose this image for sev­eral reasons:

The eye is tack tack sharp and that’s hard to do on a sub­ject this small, because focus­ing (and dof) is a chal­leng­ing task at this size and dis­tance to sub­ject. Sharp­ness is lovely in many places; leg hairs, tho­rax, abdomen. Blurred back­ground shows no distractions.

The sub­ject has a def­i­nite impact on the viewer. It’s likely very creepy for many view­ers, prob­a­bly because of sharp­ness. My eye is focused on one thing, that fly.

Good com­po­si­tion all around which can be chal­leng­ing at this size as well.

Nice high­light con­trol on what­ever the fly is rest­ing on and the over­all expo­sure is well han­dled with sup­ple­men­tary lighting.

For all these rea­sons, this is my choice for image of the month. Since we all have opin­ions, some mem­bers may dis­agree with my choice. That’s cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to fur­ther cri­tique the image. The pur­pose here is to sug­gest strong ele­ments in the photo that we may learn from.

Con­grats again OWLP for cre­at­ing this strik­ing image!

I¯¿½d also like to include these 2 images as hon­ourable men­tions as they also came so so close to being picked.

Col­or­less Beauty by Kat

Din­ner time by Richard

Power At Sun­rise by Mad Aussie